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Search indexed NASA NTRS and DOE OSTI research on propulsion, heat transfer, battery materials and energy systems. Follow report and document links to the original sources.

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At least 127 records · Page 7
All sourcesNASA NTRSDOE OSTI
DOE OSTI2024

Deriving the Infrared Complex Refractive Indices of Organic Powders for Optical Modeling: Comparison of Methods

Identification of solids via infrared reflection spectroscopy requires a spectral library of all solids likely to be encountered. A confounding factor in populating such a spectral library is that the reflectance spectra of solids vary with their form, including particle size, film thickness, and substrate. To reduce the efforts of experimentally constructing such a library, an alternate strategy is to use the wavelength-dependent optical constants, n and k, of a solid to calculate a series of reflectance spectra corresponding to each scenario or morphology. Because most n/k measurements are best performed on mm-sized crystals, however, the challenge of determining the optical constants increases when a solid is only readily available as a powder, as is often the case. Some organic solids, such as caffeine, are both unavailable in large crystals and difficult to press into pellets. In this study, the infrared optical constants, or complex refractive indices, of caffeine were determined using three different methods: single-angle reflectance, infrared spectroscopic ellipsometry, and quantitative absorbance measurements of KBr pellets. The n and k values derived through each method were used to model the hyperspectral imaging reflectance spectrum of a caffeine film on a steel planchet. Over 1,110 – 870 cm-1, the single-angle reflectance-derived n and k had the best correlation with the experimental spectrum. These results suggest different organic solids may require different methods to determine the most accurate infrared complex refractive indices for synthetic spectral libraries.

FTIR, hyperspectral imaging, infrared, infrared (I↗
DOE OSTI2016

Modeling optical absorption for thermoreflectance measurements

Optical pump-probe techniques based on thermoreflectance, such as time domain thermoreflectance and frequency domain thermoreflectance (FDTR), have been widely used to characterize the thermal conductivity of thin films and the thermal conductance across interfaces. These techniques typically use a transducer layer to absorb the pump light and improve the thermoreflectance signal. The transducer, however, complicates the interpretation of the measured signal because the approximation that all the energy from the pump beam is deposited at the transducer surface is not always accurate. In this paper, we consider the effect of laser absorption in the top layer of a multilayer sample, and derive an analytical solution for the thermoreflectance signal in the diffusion regime based on volumetric heating. We analyze the measurement sensitivity to the pump absorption depth for transducers with different thermal conductivities, and investigate the additional effect of probe laser penetration depth on the measured signal. We validate our model using FDTR measurements on 490 nm thick amorphous silicon films deposited on fused silica and silicon substrates.

71 CLASSICAL AND QUANTUM MECHANICS, GENERAL PHYSIC↗
DOE OSTI2013

Thermochromic VO{sub 2} nanorods made by sputter deposition: Growth conditions and optical modeling

Reactive dc magnetron sputtering onto glass-based substrates yielded deposits of thermochromic VO{sub 2} with well-developed nanorods and nanowires. Their formation was promoted by high substrate temperature (above {approx}500 Degree-Sign C), sufficient film thickness, proper inlet of the reactive gas, dispersed gold 'seeds,' and pronounced substrate roughness. Rutherford back scattering ascertained mass thicknesses, scanning electron microscopy depicted the nanostructures, and glancing incidence X-ray diffraction proved that single-phase VO{sub 2} was normally formed. Spectrophotometric measurements of total and diffuse transmittance and reflectance on VO{sub 2} thin films, at room temperature and {approx}100 Degree-Sign C, allowed us to determine complex dielectric functions below and above the 'critical' temperature for thermochromic switching ({approx}68 Degree-Sign C). These data were then used in computations based on the Bruggeman effective medium theory applied to randomly oriented prolate spheroidal structural units to derive the optical properties of the deposits. Experimental and computed data on spectral absorptance were found to be in good qualitative agreement.

77 NANOSCIENCE AND NANOTECHNOLOGY↗
DOE OSTI2017

Inspection of 56 Fe γ -Ray angular distributions as a function of incident neutron energy using optical model approaches

Neutron inelastic scattering cross sections measured directly through (n,n) or deduced from g-ray production cross sections following inelastic neutron scattering (n,n0) are a focus of basic and applied research at the University of Kentucky Accelerator Laboratory (www.pa.uky.edu/accelerator). For nuclear data applications, angle-integrated cross sections are desired over a wide range of fast neutron energies. Several days of experimental beam time are required for a data set at each incident neutron energy, which limits the number of angular distributions that can be measured in a reasonable amount of time. Approximations can be employed to generate cross sections with a higher energy resolution, since at 125°, the a 2 P 2 term of the Legendre expansion is identically zero and the a 4 P 4 is assumed to be very small. Provided this assumption is true, a single measurement at 125o would produce the g-ray production cross section. Finally, this project tests these assumptions and energy dependences using the codes CINDY/SCAT and TALYS/ECIS06/SCAT. It is found that care must be taken when interpreting g-ray excitation functions as cross sections when the incident neutron energy is <1000 keV above threshold or before the onset of feeding.

73 NUCLEAR PHYSICS AND RADIATION PHYSICS↗
DOE OSTI2015

Modeling optical properties of silicon clusters by first principles: From a few atoms to large nanocrystals

Time dependent density functional tight binding (TDDFTB) method is implemented with sparse matrix techniques and improved parallelization algorithms. The method is employed to calculate the optical properties of various Si nanocrystals (NCs). The calculated light absorption spectra of small Si NCs from TDDFTB were found to be comparable with many body perturbation methods utilizing planewave basis sets. For large Si NCs (more than a thousand atoms) that are beyond the reach of conventional approaches, the TDDFTB method is able to produce reasonable results that are consistent with prior experiments. We also employed the method to study the effects of surface chemistry on the optical properties of large Si NCs. We learned that the optical properties of Si NCs can be manipulated with small molecule passivations such as methyl, hydroxyl, amino, and fluorine. In general, the shifts and profiles in the absorption spectra can be tuned with suitably chosen passivants.

37 INORGANIC, ORGANIC, PHYSICAL, AND ANALYTICAL CH↗
DOE OSTI2026

Geometric optics model of Thomson scattering enhanced by parametric coupling

We formulate a theory of Thomson scattering (TS) from inhomogeneous plasmas using a ray-tracing approach. The scattered radiation is described within the eikonal approximation, including convective gain arising from scattering instabilities driven by the TS probe laser. In the limit of a weak probe and vanishing gain, the theory recovers the standard TS cross section and scattered power due to volumetric particle noise. The ray-tracing formalism is implemented in a TS fitting framework, enabling accurate analysis of inhomogeneous plasmas whose background profiles can be provided by large-scale hydrodynamic simulations or experimental diagnostics. Here, several examples of synthetic TS spectra are presented, and further extensions of the theory are discussed.

Carleton, D. E. [University of Alberta, Edmonton, ↗
DOE OSTI2021

The Simons Observatory: modeling optical systematics in the Large Aperture Telescope

We present geometrical and physical optics simulation results for the Simons Observatory Large Aperture Telescope. This work was developed as part of the general design process for the telescope, allowing us to evaluate the impact of various design choices on performance metrics and potential systematic effects. The primary goal of the simulations was to evaluate the final design of the reflectors and the cold optics that are now being built. We describe nonsequential ray tracing used to inform the design of the cold optics, including absorbers internal to each optics tube. We discuss ray tracing simulations of the telescope structure that allow us to determine geometries that minimize detector loading and mitigate spurious near-field effects that have not been resolved by the internal baffling. We also describe physical optics simulations, performed over a range of frequencies and field locations, that produce estimates of monochromatic far-field beam patterns, which in turn are used to gauge general optical performance. Finally, we describe simulations that shed light on beam sidelobes from panel gap diffraction.

Gudmundsson, Jon E. (ORCID:0000000317600355)↗
DOE OSTI2014

Computational Nanophotonics: Model Optical Interactions and Transport in Tailored Nanosystem Architectures

The program is directed toward development of new computational approaches to photoprocesses in nanostructures whose geometry and composition are tailored to obtain desirable optical responses. The emphasis of this specific program is on the development of computational methods and prediction and computational theory of new phenomena of optical energy transfer and transformation on the extreme nanoscale (down to a few nanometers).

77 NANOSCIENCE AND NANOTECHNOLOGY↗
DOE OSTI2014

Computational Nanophotonics: modeling optical interactions and transport in tailored nanosystem architectures

This report describes research by George Schatz and Mark Ratner that was done over the period 10/03-5/09 at Northwestern University. This research project was part of a larger research project with the same title led by Stephen Gray at Argonne. A significant amount of our work involved collaborations with Gray, and there were many joint publications as summarized later. In addition, a lot of this work involved collaborations with experimental groups at Northwestern, Argonne, and elsewhere. The research was primarily concerned with developing theory and computational methods that can be used to describe the interaction of light with noble metal nanoparticles (especially silver) that are capable of plasmon excitation. Classical electrodynamics provides a powerful approach for performing these studies, so much of this research project involved the development of methods for solving Maxwell’s equations, including both linear and nonlinear effects, and examining a wide range of nanostructures, including particles, particle arrays, metal films, films with holes, and combinations of metal nanostructures with polymers and other dielectrics. In addition, our work broke new ground in the development of quantum mechanical methods to describe plasmonic effects based on the use of time dependent density functional theory, and we developed new theory concerned with the coupling of plasmons to electrical transport in molecular wire structures. Applications of our technology were aimed at the development of plasmonic devices as components of optoelectronic circuits, plasmons for spectroscopy applications, and plasmons for energy-related applications.

75 CONDENSED MATTER PHYSICS, SUPERCONDUCTIVITY AND↗